The Lumbee Indians: An American Struggle

The Lumbees' journey as a people sheds new light on America's defining moments, from the first encounters with Europeans to the present day… Their fight for full federal acknowledgment continues to this day, while the Lumbee people's struggle for justice and self-determination continues to transform our view of the American experience. Readers of this book will never see Native American history the same way.

“A riveting and all-encompassing history of the Lumbees, the largest tribe east of the Mississippi River. . . . Lowery’s book appeals to a wide audience, both general and scholarly. Chapter intersections called ‘Interludes’ enhance her well-written and well-researched narrative. . . . Lowery’s readers become thoroughly engaged in the story of why she is ‘Proud to be a Lumbee.’”

— The Journal of Southern Religion

Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South: Race, Identity, and the Making of a Nation

Using photographs, letters, genealogy, federal and state records, and first-person family history, Lowery narrates this compelling conversation between insiders and outsiders, demonstrating how the Lumbee People challenged the boundaries of Indian, southern, and American identities.

“Lowery’s arguments deserve thoughtful consideration not only by Americanist historians and scholars of native/indigenous studies but by officials, journalists, and anyone who presumes to know what makes or does not make a people ‘Indian.’”

— Journal of American History

Southern Cultures Vol. 28, No. 3: Inheritance

Guest edited by Malinda Maynor Lowery

The Inheritance Issue explores what we have inherited, how, and from whom, reflecting on what we bring forward and what we must leave behind; what we have reckoned with and the consequences of failing to reckon. The lived experience of Indigenous people in the American and global Souths is crucial to the issue’s reflections on place, identity, and origin and to the discussions of solidarity, allyship, identity, and belonging that must precede collaboration and reconciliation.

“There is no recipe to follow for historical reckoning. Some of us spend our entire lives trying to find the instructions.”

- Malinda Maynor Lowery

Here are some highlights of my writing for publications both national and local - including the Washington Post, Oxford American, and Scalawag Magazine.

  • Career Girl Meets Rock Star (Oxford American)

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  • Opinion: Tomochichi’s full history is worth knowing (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

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  • Why more people are celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day (PBS)

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  • During Civil Rights Era, Native American Communities in the South Armed Themselves Against the Klan (Scalawag Magazine)

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  • The Lumbee Table Is Equal Parts Indian, Southern, and American (INDY Week)

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  • Tom Cotton wants to save American history. But he gets it all wrong. (Washington Post)

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  • The Low Hum (Oxford American)

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  • Analysis: Why Did the Lumbees Vote for Dan Bishop? (The Daily Yonder)

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  • Are American Indians Part of a United States National History? (Public Seminar)

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